Schools Expand Security With Car Searches

Education - Notebook

August 8, 1999|By CATHERINE HINMAN and MIKE BERRY of the Sentinel staff

As part of a heightened security program being instituted in all Orange County schools, students who drive to school this year will be subject to having their cars searched.

The district already conducts random searches of lockers, but to deter kids further from bringing drugs and weapons to campus, it is extending that policy to cars.

Ryan Hudnall, a Dr. Phillips High School student who served on the district security task force, says a lot of kids won't like it, but it's all about following the rules.

``Who cares if your car gets searched if you don't have anything in it?'' he said.

Other parts of the plan include a revised student dress code, identification badges for all high school students by Aug. 30, and tighter control of school entry and exit points. Edgewater High School gate guards, for example, will now wear bright red T-shirts identifying them as security personnel.

PROGRAM FOR TROUBLED STUDENTS EXPANDS

An expanded program for troubled Orange County middle school students is up and running this school year.

Excel Alternatives has been granted a contract to run an academy for students whose behavior could cause them serious problems in a regular school setting. The school is near Excel's current program for expelled students near downtown Orlando.

The Middle School Professional Academy, as it is called, plans to serve 75 students initially, 200 by the end of the first semester, and 300 by the end of the school year. The cost is estimated at $1.1 million. Transportation will be provided.

A similar program last year served about 80 middle school students in north Orange County. The expanded school will serve students from throughout the county.

NEW PHONES MAKE CALLING TEACHERS EASIER

Parents of high school students will want to update their phone directories. All Orange County high schools and Westside and Winter Park techs received new phone numbers this summer with the installation of new state-of-art telephone systems.

The project, which cost the district $1.5 million, integrates phone mail into the main phone system. The district hopes this will improve communications between parents and teachers, said Anne Atherton, senior manager for communications.

Not only will teachers be easier to reach, but they also will be able to record announcements about homework and project assignments on phone mail messages.

ST. ANDREW CATHOLIC GETS A NEW PRINCIPAL

Kathy Welsh is the new principal of St. Andrew Catholic School in Pine Hills, which opens Monday, along with the other nine Catholic schools in Orange County.

Welsh has been assistant principal at Tildenville Elementary School for three years. Before that she was a science and alternative education teacher at Lakeview Middle School for 10 years.

LAKE HIGHLAND ADDING MATH-SCIENCE HALL

Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando this summer broke ground on an $11 million math and science building.

The 60,000-square-foot facility, expected to open in the fall of 2000, will include five math classrooms, one computer lab, two physics labs, two chemistry labs, three biology labs, one general science lab and music and band rooms.

DISTRICT EXPANDS GIFTED CLASSES

Deerwood Elementary School and Liberty Middle School in the east part of the district are introducing expanded programs for gifted students this year.

Deerwood will have its first AAIM program - or Academically Accelerated Individualized Model - for super-gifted students with super-high IQs and achievement. Under the program, students will spend every day with a specially trained teacher. Deerwood expects just seven students in its AAIM program's first year.

At Liberty, about 60 students will participate in expanded and more rigorous classes for gifted sixth-graders.

In years past, many gifted middle-schoolers were bused to Conway Middle. AAIM students from the east area had to be bused to Blankner Elementary south of downtown Orlando.

FAMILIES NEEDED FOR EXCHANGE STUDENTS

The Cultural Academic Student exchange is looking for families to host high school exchange students from a number of countries, including Brazil, Germany, Spain, Russia and Finland. Students are 15 to 18 years old, speak English and will arrive in late August with their own spending money and medical insurance. They will attend a local high school for five or 10 months. For details call 1-887-846-5848.